It may be a little early to book reservations aboard Australia's Very Fast Train, and even if you could get one, say for the 50th birthday of your newborn grandchild, you would be best not to put down a deposit just yet.

The latest study for a high-speed rail service between Melbourne and Brisbane has such disconcerting qualifications that the most tragic gambler would be given pause.

''Whether to proceed with planning for a future [high-speed rail] program must necessarily be a policy decision, taking account of many factors that cannot be known with certainty, and in the context of risks which cannot be perfectly controlled,'' a key finding reads.

Super speedy but don't hold your breath for the Australian version. Photo: AFP

Unsurprisingly, Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese did not declare the high-speed rail project as part of government policy when he unveiled the 500-page report, along with almost 300 maps, on the fantasy choo-choo on Thursday.

Advertisement

Rather, he opened up the subject for public debate and comment, admitting that it ''does pose a number of complex challenges''.

Challenges? Take your pick: along the 1748-kilometre route would be a mere 144 kilometres of tunnels; 67 kilometres of which would be under the city of Sydney alone.

''It's certainly a cracker of a tunnel,'' Mr Albanese remarked.

Why, the high-speed Channel Tunnel from Britain to France is a mere 50 kilometres.

The only comparison with the proposed Sydney tunnel is the 67.3-kilometre metro running between an airport and a bus terminal in Guangzhou, China, the longest railway tunnel in the world.

There is also the ticklish cost of the Melbourne to Brisbane line: $114 billion.

The cautious tend to be a tad lairy about cost projections on big projects. The Chunnel, for instance, ran 80 per cent over its budget, though it took only six years to build.

Work on the first stage of the proposed high-speed rail project - a modest stretch between Sydney and Canberra - would not be able to start for about another 14 years because of the need for planning, approvals and the unravelling of red tape, the report says. Construction of the whole system, with branch lines to the Gold Coast, would take another 30 years.

Thus, even if all the federal and state governments agreed and the project got the whistle, it would not be completed until 2058, not taking account of those ''factors that cannot be known with certainty''. Enthusiasts tend to refer to the dream line as the Steel Snowy.

Somewhere along the way, however, Australia's imagination for monumental engineering exploits seems to have lost steam.

The Snowy Mountains scheme included 16 massive dams, seven hydro-power stations, a pumping station and 225 kilometres of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts. It took just 25 years to complete.

Australian travellers, of course, have had to learn patience. The Fraser government promised in 1980 the Hume Highway would be a duplicated road all the way from Sydney to Melbourne, by 1990. The final section of the duplication - a bypass at Holbrook - is due to be completed in June, 23 years late.

47 comments

And there’s still five months to the election. Plenty of time to roll out a bridge from Melbourne to Launceston, and a cycle path from Sydney to Ayers Rock, a back yard pool for every Western Sydney home and the intergalactic super highway

Mind you, the way the NBN gold is going, Albo might be able to open both it, and the VFT on the same day in 2063.

Commenter

Hacka

Location

Canberra

Date and time

April 12, 2013, 6:55AM

Labor may as well be proposing they are planning to colonise the moon. These are pure diversionary tactics by Albanese. His cost estimate of $114bn quickly turns into $200bn so the money will never be there for a project of that size, at least not for another 130 years or so when Australia's population is 45-50 million. Move on Albanese and focus on more realistic infrastructure initiatives that may occur in our lifetime such as a rail link to Melbourne Airport.

Commenter

Tim of Altona

Date and time

April 12, 2013, 8:05AM

You guys are crazy. No vision whatsoever. This kind of fast rail link would open up rural Australia around the major capitals, giving everyday people the opportunity to buy affordable housing and to work in the major centers, without a 2hr+ trip each way every day. The roads can't handle it, there clearly aren't air routes, but there is a very slow train that people make do with, but it vastly affects their quality of life. The need is there.

And image how great it'd be to be able to catch the train down to the snow? I've done that several times from London to the Alps on the TGV, and that is a wonderful trip in so many ways.

This sort of progressive social thinking is what makes society better for everyone. It's not all about money, because money has no real value. Making people's lives better and looking to a changing future? That has value.

Commenter

Dan

Location

Coogee

Date and time

April 12, 2013, 10:14AM

@ Dan. How about having a vision closer to reality. The Federal Govt should build a super giant airport between Sydney and Canberra and link to these cities by high speed rail.

There is an explosion of tourists out of China. In the past 12 months there has been 100m tourists out of China. We are missing out our fair share because Sydney is the No 1 bottleneck to inbound tourists from Asia.

What you are reading about on the high speed train network is just an election stunt to distract the voters from all the failures of the Gillard ALP Govt.

Commenter

Dr B S Goh

Location

Australian in Asia

Date and time

April 12, 2013, 10:38AM

So its not labour policy - yet Albo is presenting it like it is............hhmmnnIts going to cost how many billion and take how long .............hhmmnn(given the accuracy of MRRT and NBN you have to double take)Is this not just a little like building dams in FNQ..........

Commenter

gman

Location

nsw

Date and time

April 12, 2013, 7:37AM

It must be vile to live without any vision or dreams of being better.

Commenter

J. Fraser

Location

Queensland

Date and time

April 12, 2013, 10:59AM

@ J fraserDams and Rail - both worthy visions.....

Only one was laughed at - go figure

Commenter

gman

Location

nsw

Date and time

April 12, 2013, 11:10AM

This is the much-needed infrastructure that the east coast is crying out for and must be pursued. Good on Albanese for throwing it out there for debate.

Commenter

liklik

Date and time

April 12, 2013, 7:47AM

Looks like we can both agree here.

"Redemption song" ?

or

"Keep on moving" .. perhaps.

Commenter

J. Fraser

Location

Queensland

Date and time

April 12, 2013, 11:02AM

Why build trains when you have planes that are relatively inexpensive to fly.